The Community Shield match was both hard-bitten and full of incisive football. Nearly all of the attacking flair came from Manchester United, who rallied from 2-0 down to win 3-2 when Nani capitalised on a missed challenge by the Manchester City captain, Vincent Kompany, to run clear, take the ball round the goalkeeper Joe Hart and score in injury time. The game was gripping but not always edifying.
It is as well that they retired the old title of the Charity Shield, which had far too altruistic a tone for a match that was as hard-fought and sometimes ugly as this. City collected five bookings. Even so, it had to be relished for the intensity and, on sufficient occasions, for the skill. United, for a while, looked as if they would find events at Wembley difficult to bear and not just because their opponents looked set to have a fillip for the Premier League campaign to come.
The 20-year-old United goalkeeper David de Gea, seen as a promising successor to the retired Edwin van der Sar, was all but motionless as Edin Dzeko's shot went past him in first-half injury time to send City into a 2-0 lead. Neither De Gea nor his defenders can be pardoned either for the scope they gave Joleon Lescott when he headed in from a David Silva free-kick after 38 minutes. Prior to that, it had often been United who looked both eager and effective.
Sir Alex Ferguson made three substitutions at the interval and this continued to be an uncompromising occasion. The first United goal, after 52 minutes, will, however, have been much too simple for the liking of the City manager, Roberto Mancini, as Chris Smalling turned in an Ashley Young set piece.
United's leveller six minutes later gleamed with both style and the intuitive understanding of players linking perfectly. Passes rippled between Wayne Rooney, the substitute Tom Cleverley and Nani before the Portuguese clipped the ball into the net for the first of his goals in the 58th minute. City, to their cost, could not contain him.
Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/07/manchester-united-manchester-city-community-shield
It is as well that they retired the old title of the Charity Shield, which had far too altruistic a tone for a match that was as hard-fought and sometimes ugly as this. City collected five bookings. Even so, it had to be relished for the intensity and, on sufficient occasions, for the skill. United, for a while, looked as if they would find events at Wembley difficult to bear and not just because their opponents looked set to have a fillip for the Premier League campaign to come.
The 20-year-old United goalkeeper David de Gea, seen as a promising successor to the retired Edwin van der Sar, was all but motionless as Edin Dzeko's shot went past him in first-half injury time to send City into a 2-0 lead. Neither De Gea nor his defenders can be pardoned either for the scope they gave Joleon Lescott when he headed in from a David Silva free-kick after 38 minutes. Prior to that, it had often been United who looked both eager and effective.
Sir Alex Ferguson made three substitutions at the interval and this continued to be an uncompromising occasion. The first United goal, after 52 minutes, will, however, have been much too simple for the liking of the City manager, Roberto Mancini, as Chris Smalling turned in an Ashley Young set piece.
United's leveller six minutes later gleamed with both style and the intuitive understanding of players linking perfectly. Passes rippled between Wayne Rooney, the substitute Tom Cleverley and Nani before the Portuguese clipped the ball into the net for the first of his goals in the 58th minute. City, to their cost, could not contain him.
Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/07/manchester-united-manchester-city-community-shield
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